The Strand Study Bible

GENESIS GENESIS God, who became man, in order that He might die and rise again so as to provide sinful man with salvation and thus a better resurrection. What God provided three days before man was ever created on the sixth day was a “resurrected” Savior providing salvation (you can’t have salvation without a resurrected Savior). Job said in Job 19:25: For I know that my Redeemer (or, SAVIOR ) liveth , and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Jesus said in John 12:23-24: 48 Our Lord died (like a plant) just like He said He would. Yet, like the plant, our Lord came forth from the ground in power, triumph and resurrection. The reason for plant life on the third day was to illustrate to mankind that a pre-existing Savior was ready and willing to offer man the water of salvation by way of a “sinless” resurrection. 1:14a This word ( lights ) is the Hebrew word ma-ohr , which means “ luminary, or light holder .” Up until the fourth day of creation the earth had been shrouded in a vaporous blanket that causes the light to seep through in a pale and cheerless manner. Then appeared the light containers (the physical sun, moon, planets and stars) and melted away the lower atmosphere of its hindering mist ( Gal 4:1 , Colo 1:26,27 and Eph 3:3-6 ). The only thing still intact after the luminary lights were released from their restraint was the firmament, that canopy of water that hovered above in the upper atmosphere in order to shield mankind from the sun’s destructive rays. However, 1,656 years after creation (c. 2344 BC) that upper atmospheric safeguard was dissolved due to the Flood ( Gen 8:22 ). The fourth day in the Mosaic account of creation is all about the sun, moon, planets and stars becoming visible . Whereas the first day of creation is all about the pre-existing light (depicting the pre-existing SAVIOR ) and the second day is all about water (depicting the SAVIOR’S salvation) and the third day is all about botany (depicting the SAVIOR’S resurrection), the fourth day is all about the physical sun (as well as the moon, planets and the stars) becoming visible (depicting the SAVIOR’S physical entrance into the world – Jn 1:1-14 and I Tim 3:16). The physical is often a reflection of the spiritual ( Mal 4:2 and Jere 14:1 ). NOTE - Seeing that it takes the sun ( light ) to keep plants ( botany ) alive, you cannot have something “living” ( botany ) that was never “born” (the SON becoming visible ). 1:14b The heavenly orbs (sun, moon, planets and stars in their constellations) are not only signposts for the physically minded (farmers and navigators), they are signs (signals) for the spiritually minded as well ( Mal 4:2 and Dan 12:3b , Mt 2:2a and Lk 21:11 ). The physical is often a reflection of the spiritual ( Jere 14:1 ).Whenever someone looks up into the heavens, no matter where he is located on earth, he notices that the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which make up the thirty-six constellations, do what is called a 360; the 360 degrees, into which the great circle of the heavens is divided. E.W. Bullinger in The Witness of the Stars notes: To an observer on the earth the whole firmament together with the sun, appears to revolve in a circle once in twenty-four hours. 32 E.W. Bullinger in Number in Scripture adds: No one can tell us why the number of degrees was first fixed at 360. It has come down to us from ancient times, and is used universally without a question. It probably arises from the product of the four numbers, 3,4,5,6 which arise out of the phenomena which lie at the root of Geometrical and Arithmetical Science. 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 = 360. 33 James Kennedy in The Real meaning of the Zodiac notes: There exists in the writings of virtually all civilized nations a description of the major stars in the heavens– something which might be called their “Constellations of the Zodiac” or the “Signs of the Zodiac,” of which there are twelve…Having made it clear that the Bible expressly, explicitly, and repeatedly condemns what is now known as astrology, the fact remains that there was a God-given Gospel in the stars which lays beyond and behind that which has now been corrupted. 34 According to both Bullinger and Kennedy, the constellations of the zodiac were ordained by God to the first man as “record- keepers” of the original revelation of God ( Gen 11:3 Subject Head ). 1:16 According to Numbers 24:15-17 and Malachi 4:2 , the greater light (the sun) depicts the SON OF GOD (Lk 1:78 and Rev 22:16), who enlightens the world with His presence (Jn 8:12 & 9:5). The physical is often a reflection of the spiritual ( Jere 14:1 ). NOTE - Since God views a day as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day (II Pet 3:8), God revealed to the world the physical light of the sun four days into creation, and then revealed to the world the spiritual light of the SON OF GOD 4,000 years into creation. Again, the physical is often a reflection of the spiritual. 1:18 Jesus told us that He depicts the Sun which “rules over the day.” He said in John 9:4-5: I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the LIGHT of the world . Truly, the only fitting symbol to portray the grandeur and splendor of the Person of CHRIST is the flaming orb that “rules over the day” (Isa 60:19-20 and Rev 1:13-16 & 21:23 & 22:5), which can either bless us (Mal 4:2), blind us (II Cor 3:14), or burn us (Mal 4:1 and Rev 19:11-16). The physical is often a reflection of the spiritual ( Jere 14:1 ). 1:19 To the careful and observant student of the Bible the week of creation spells out the entire story of redemption (God’s plan to The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit .